This particular cloak is usually of woolen-like material, although it can be leathern. It can be handled without harm, and it radiates magic. As soon as the cloak is worn, the wearer will be stricken stone dead. After its effects are known, a small label saying "Nessus Shirt Company" will be seen.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

So I'm waiting for the next bit of the Copper Palanquin to make itself obvious to me right now. As a side project, I'm thinking about creating herald/flags that correspond with the nations / organizations / personalities of Refractoria. I'm picturing a large-scale drawing (surprise) with all of the flags/heralds (small, obviously) displayed in a kind of grid with the corresponding info hand-lettered below each item. Of course, I also pictured myself being much more successful at this age so the labors of my imagination rarely have anything to do with what actually occurs in life.

Anyway. I'm posting a few of the visual references I've mocked up for the flag of the Queen of the Vast Nonsense.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

I didn't ink in the wings yesterday because my original sketch for them seemed a little lazy. So I used the wing from the Frenchie fountain as a kind of model. Now it looks sufficiently Durer-esque that I am pleased. It's a little bit reptilian and a little bit avian and looks totally unusable as a wing. My kind of wing.

First unemployed day in the studio. Got in around 9:45a, left around 7p. Not productive the entire time but still pretty engaged. It's mildly intimidating to think of the free time I'm swimming in now. But it IS what I asked for. So.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

So I'm out of work now. I was given a two weeks notice a while back. Yesterday was my last day. I'm anxious about the money, of course, but glad to have my time back. I feel like I haven't had any decent amount of free time since I moved here in 2004. First it was school and work . . . then after graduation it was work, fixing up the studio and looking for another job. When I got the job with Disney it was work and studio, then work-with-a-three-hour-daily-commute-to-White-Plains and studio. Then I got this last job which was, locationally, pretty sweet: I walked to work every day, 10 minutes from door-to-door. But, still, it was full time and the studio is always nagging at me. Not going to the studio produces a level of anxiety that's akin to leaving the house knowing you're left all of the stove's burners on high with nothing cooking. This approach would be fine if I somehow had some kind of financial stake at hand in the studio--or even some kind of show coming up--but I'm just going in based on compulsion at this point. I'm not sure that's always the healthiest thing.

Anyway, I'm blathering. I'm hoping to get into the studio early on most days before my brain gets all junked up and spend the afternoons/evening just hanging out. The schedule I've kept up since starting this drawing has meant I've had to turn down a lot of socializing. Perhaps I can climb out of my hermit cave occasionally. Of course, papa does love his hermiting.

Friday, September 10, 2010

So this was my last non-traveling-back-to-the-States day in Paris. It rained all day. I'd been up to Sacre Coeur earlier in the morning but it was slick, damp and drizzly. I didn't have any coins to gain access to the top of the dome and none of the shops around there would break my 50 Euro bill. So I left and walked to Centre Pompidou. It continued drizzle and rain for the rest of the day so, after Pomp, I decided to reign in my plans, get some food and a bottle of wine and make dinner at the apartment. Maybe I'd go out for a post-dinner perambulation? Who knows. You can't stop me. I made dinner (a small steak with some green beans, some stink-ass reblochon de savoie and a still-warm baguette) and drank half the bottle of wine. The apartment was on the six floor and it faces west so to the view was decent. After dinner I looked out the window and saw a clear-sky gap between the edge of the clouds and rooftops--the sun was still behind the clouds but I could tell that it would come erupting out in about 15-20 minutes. So I grabbed my stuff, ran down to the street and over to the nearest Metro. Metro to the closest Montmarte stop and then I sprinted up the hill to the stairs (exhausting) of Sacre Coeur. Just in time to watch the sun go apeshit.

If you look closely at the center of the image, there is a lamp post that just break the horizon. Directly to the right of that lamp post is a stubby, truncated rainbow.